we are the others
by diddledido
Summary: Five years ago Sakura found herself before the gates of Hell, ready to face judgment. Filled with regret she's granted a way to make up for her sins in another way. Adapted to her new lifestyle, her past interrupts roughly. Her former teammate faces death by the same hands that killed her and she have to take out everything to stop that from happening. KakashiXSakura


Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters that originated from the manga.

I do own this story and plotline ^.^

This is a challenge for me. I'm not a regular writer and English is not my native language. I'm humbly sorry for every grammar mistake in it. I am looking for a beta, don't worry. But as most haven't answered back… or I just contacted the wrong people, I hope to find one like this:

I'm looking for a beta, if you are interested please p.m me. Thank you :D

On to other matters, a small explanation about this fic. Do not kill me for what I did to Sakura please. I just love mythology and a greatly interested in Shinto (and all other religions in the world by Shinto tops the list) and couldn't help but wanting to write a story filled with Yokai and such. If it's not your cup of tea just leave then, you're free to.

Please tell me if a made any big mistakes. I'm willing and pleased to learn, not only grammar wise but also if I make any mistakes with the yokai, or named anything wrong…

Then there is only one other thing to say;

Enjoy :D

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_For a ninja dead is never normally dead. Paying for the sins in the afterlife is a normal occurrence and only thought of after death. Most end up in Hell where they have to pay, but some are taken before the gates of Hell. Five years ago Sakura found herself before said gates, ready to face judgment. Filled with regret she's granted a way to make up for her sins in another way. A way nobody ever thought off. Put in a group of selected souls she have one change to redemption. Adapted to her new lifestyle her past interrupts roughly. Her former partner, her former teacher and her former teammate faces death by the same hands that killed her and she have to put up everything to stop that from happening._

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**We are the others. **

After a long day walking Sakura enjoyed a moment of rest. Having stumbled on a small open clearing she decided to make camp here. There was still a good two hours sunlight to go in which she could make quite some progress but she was tired and hungry. It was a warm day and the late afternoon hadn't cooled even a bit. It promised to be another hot and damp night. Even sleeping outside didn't bring any relieve. Sakura didn't dislike the summer, but traveling in this heat was unpleasant.

On the clearing lay the trunk of a tree long since fallen. Carefully she tested if it didn't crumble if she sat on it and found it solid enough. It was quiet in the forest, most animals waited for a cooler moment of the day to let themselves heard or seen and only a few bird chirped in the trees. Still it was peaceful and nice at the clearing. The clearing was one of the places she normally avoided or entered with care. The trees grew in a neat circle around it and a tall thin birch grew in the middle. It was a place where the spirits of the forest would usually dwell. This one was empty though. She felt it when she entered the forest. An emptiness that even the trees spoke off. It wasn't usual for a forest to be this empty and it gave her a queer feeling.

Swinging her backpack from her back she dig around until she found her last apple and sandwich. Deciding to leave the sandwich for later and placed it back in her bag and munched on her apple. What could have caused that the guardian of the forest was gone? She wondered while looking around closely. It was a nice place. Picture perfect it could be called. Almost a perfect circle, blooming flowers in white and yellow, and a small stream that would lead undoubtedly to the river she crossed before getting into the forest. No it was a perfect place. So what happened here? There were no traces of violence. Nothing that indicated anything violent to have happened here.

There was no miasma at all.

Deep in thoughts as she was, she didn't hear the sounds at first. Sakura's head snapped up when a loud blasting sound echoed through the forest. Birds shot up from the trees, calling loudly. A few squirrels jumped over the trunk she sat on and a deer thundered pass. Sakura blinked in the sudden chaos and panic. Jumping up she looked around but found nothing. A minute passed without any other sound. She begun to doubt ever having heard it, but no, the birds were still circling around in the air, though a few were lowering towards the trees again. Their calls little less loud.

Wary she picked her bag up and swung it on her back. Maybe it wasn't the best place to stay after all. Just as she turned to leave a loud crashing erupted before her. The birds that dared to sit back in the trees shot up again, crying even louder than before. A dark, human-shaped something shot between the trees, missing the birch by mere millimeters and smacked on the ground beside her, rolled over and ended in a heap of…

With her heart beating in her throat as turned slightly to see what it was. _It_ was human. _It_ was male. The heap groaned, shuddered and begun untangling himself. Sakura stood frozen on the ground, even if the thought to move came up inside her she couldn't obey it. The man had untangled himself and rose from the ground. If the groan hadn't sound familiar than his posture was. And even if his posture hadn't given him away than it certainly was his hair. Silvery spikes shot up to all sides, with twigs and leaves stuck in it. Her breath caught her throat. She could only stare at him while he turned slowly towards her. Everything in her body screamed to run for it, to run away as fast as she could.

But she couldn't.

His eyes widened at sight of her. He'd lift his hitai-ate sometime before and two eyes stared back at her. She could see her astonishment reflected in his.

Sakura opened her mouth to speak, to say something, anything as long as this strangeness would end, when a sound from the place where he shot into the clearing pulled her thoughts away from him. Of course there had to be another person here. No way would he launch himself like that into a clearing. The answer to who it was came sooner than she wished, especially after seeing who it was. Fear rippled through her as she watched a tall, black-clad figure pushing through the leaves. He was still the same than five years ago, of course he was, she was too… in a sense. He was the embodiment of her nightmare. She _had _nightmares of him five years ago. Almost every night she screamed the house awake. What was his name again…? Hotaru. Demon from the depths of Hell, and even deeper at that. Rotten inside out.

'Well, well who would have thought? The impeccable duo. From all the places, you had to be here?' Hotaru sneered. Overcome from her initial shock and fear Sakura looked at Kakashi and back at the man. Her nightmares were from five years back. He wasn't that scary… if she ignored a few important facts about him that is.

'Could say the same for you. From all places for you to appear it had to be here?' Her mind was racing. No way that she could take him on, but if they both fought together…? Just thinking back of the last time they both had fought him and of the outcome and her heart sunk. Last time was five years ago. But no, she changed. More than a normal person would, but she was much stronger than five years ago. She also knows more now than she did then.

'How long hasn't it been? You seem to have flourished more than we expected. Maybe I should give you both time to chat, eh? Need some time to catch up to each other?' Hotaru sank down on a boulder and lay his left leg over his right knee while watching them. 'Well get on then. I have time.'

Sakura balled her fists. Anger shot up inside her. 'Could you just leave us then, or are you going to kill us first and let us talk in Yomi? How did you survive though?' Sakura turned to Kakashi and asked him the last question. Her thoughts stumbled over each other in her effort to think up a plan and she wanted to keep talking

'I'd like to ask you that the same. How did you survive, and why did you never return?' his voice was monotone when he asked her that. He had his emotions under control she saw. Was he accepting what he saw? No she didn't think so. He probably thought it was a jutsu… Sakura shook her head against that thought. No he had his sharigan activated. He would see through a jutsu faster than any of them could cast.

'Ah no, I _did_ kill her five years ago. Question is what are you now?' Hotaru asked from the boulder.

'Just die and I'll tell you,' her eyes never left both men. If she and Kakashi could cooperate then they had a good change in killing him. Sakura shot a glance up. A good hour before dusk would set in. Could she… no. She cast the thought aside before finishing it. 'What did you say?' she asked Hotaru. Deep in thought she was she missed his last remark.

'I was wondering if it was that old hag who snatched you away from the gates. Never thought she had that much influences.' The last he muttered more to himself than to them. Sakura knew who he meant though but was in no mood to explain it him. 'Anyway I'd been annoyed that I never finished my job properly. Never thought I would get a second change.' He stood up from the boulder and took a step closer.

Kakashi tensed and so did she. Would they fight together to solve this problem first? She could talk with him later, even if it was against the rules. She couldn't help this situation.

But she never thought that just seeing him did so much inside her.

Sakura took a step forward. He always protected her, now it was her turn. If she had to fight him alone, then so it be! Taking her gloves from her pouch at her hips she pulled them on and balled her fists. She would not let him die.

'We do this together.' Kakashi's voice came from beside her. She shot a glance at her side but couldn't see anything on his face than the determination he had with every serious fight.

'Okay,' she nodded and turned her attention back to the man before them. Last time when both of them fought together one of them died and another was very close to dying. She would not let it happen again. Sakura squinted her eyes, there was something with him… something was off. Before she could pounder on that a loud explosion tore the silence of the forest apart. Sakura jumped up and away from the blast. _She hadn't seen him move!_ How fast could he be? Summoning from a source inside her she opened her right hand, holding the palm up. A blue fire shot up above her hand. She threw it in Hotaru's direction.

'Fox-fire.' He said jumping up and in her direction. 'Kitsune then it is. I hate kitsune.'

'I'm not so found of you either,' Sakura growled. She was mid-air and he on a branch. She could see the red glow in his hand and remembered the feel of it deep in her bones. It was one of the techniques that killed her five years ago. Before he could throw it at her a shower of shuriken and needles cascaded over him, preventing him in his attack. Sakura landed neatly on the ground and looked around for Kakashi. She found him in a tree behind her. Hotaru had escaped the waterfall and hid himself somewhere. Again a voice in her head said that something about him was off. He acted different than five years ago, less secure of himself.

_You're at an advantage. Unlike many other Yokai you can use chakra to fight with. _She remembered that one evening when she sat with Daji at the table, drinking tea and talking about everything and nothing when her current state of being became topic. The white haired woman had smiled when she said it. _If you ever encounter him again, use chakra mixed with fox-fire. It will do the trick I'm sure._

Sakura jumped up to where Kakashi stood. 'Can you use chidori?' She located Hotaru a small distance away. He seemed off. It might be one of the few opportunities they will ever get in killing him. It was now or never.

'I can.' Kakashi answered. He'd seen Hotaru too and probably realized the same thing, something was really off. He wasn't the type who hid and yet he did now. Was he waiting?

'I'll draw him out, impair him with my fire and you with chidori. If that doesn't do the trick… well just run away then.' She meant it to sound like a joke but it came out serious. She did want him to run away if things went wrong.

'We need to talk. I'm not going anywhere.' Kakashi didn't look at her. He hadn't done ever since he first saw her after his crash into the clearing.

Sakura nodded and muttered okay. She jumped off the branch. To do what she planned to do she needed to change a bit. And to change a bit meant to let her ears and tail show… how would he take that? She dismissed her insecurities and worries from her mind and concentrated in her chakra. If she wanted to draw him out and chase him around than the best way was to smash everything to pieces.

She shot a small prayer up at whatever deity that housed her normally as an excuse at destroying his place and smashed through the first tree. Hotaru jumped up and away and she followed him close, flinging rocks after him and uprooting trees where she went.

Hotaru stumbled. She picked her speed up, brought her fist back and concentrated enough to clad it in the blue fire. At the same moment Kakashi landed beside her and thrust his blue electric ball against Hotaru at the same time as she did.

What was once Hotaru fell now empty on the ground before them. Sakura sank down on the ground and sat looking at the spot where Hotaru lay. Slowly his body dissolved into dust. He was death like her, and when death dies nothing remains...

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Daji is a Chinese lady from the Shang Dynasty in ancient China. In the novel of Fengshen Yanyi she is portrayed as an evil fox-spirit. As a beautiful daughter of a general she was married forcibly with Zhou Xin. A fox spirit that served one that Zhou had offended possessed Daji's body, expelling her soul. Together they schemed cruelty and made many torturing devises and so on (Two really horrible people) Information taken from Wikipedia


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